All three originate in the midbrain. Funding for this site is provided by readers like you. Pleasure and Drugs. Avoiding Pain. The first is the mesolimbic pathway—the bundle of dopaminergic fibres associated with the reward circuit. This pathway originates in the ventral tegmental area and innervates several structures of the limbic system , including the nucleus accumbens. It helps an organism establish associations between environmental cues and whether or not that particular experience was rewarding or aversive, for example, remembering what accompanied finding food or fleeing a predator.
It also interacts with the VTA-NAc pathway to determine the rewarding or aversive value of an environmental stimulus natural reward, drug of abuse, stress. The hippocampus is critical for declarative memory, the memory of persons, places, or things. Along with the amygdala, it establishes memories of drug experiences which are important mediators of relapse.
The hypothalamus is important for coordinating an individual's interest in rewards with the body's physiological state.
This region integrates brain function with the physiological needs of the organism. Probably the most important, but least understood, are frontal regions of cerebral cortex, such as medial prefrontal cortex, anterior cingulate cortex, and orbitofrontal cortex, which provide executive control over choices made in the environment for example, whether to seek a reward. The locus coeruleus is the primary site of noradrenergic neurons in the brain, which pervasively modulate brain function to regulate the state of activation and mood of the organism.
The dorsal raphe is the primary site of serotonergic neurons in the brain, which, like noradrenergic neurons, pervasively modulate brain function to regulate the state of activation and mood of the organism. Of course, these various brain regions, and many more, do not function separately.
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